Sounds familiar:

In reviewing a Lindsey Graham-friendly New Yorker article about climate legislation, Jonathan Chait has this to say: (emp add)

[The author, Ryan Lizza] shows that the sponsors of the climate change bill, Lindsey Graham, Lieberman, and John Kerry, had plenty of legitimate greivances with the White House. Obama was not showing a determination to pass a bill. At key junctures, he made unilateral concessions that the threesome had hoped to trade for GOP support. And someone in his administration needlessly antagonized Graham. The detail is fantastic and damning of Obama, but the conclusion that these events were decisive seems questionable.

The "concessions" include nuclear powerplant loan guarantees and offshore drilling in the Gulf. Now the internal mechanics of the legislation's path isn't quite that simple, but there does seem to be a pattern of the White House not working effectively with whomever in Congress is trying to get bills passed. Does the problem lie with Phil Schiliro, Obama’s top congressional liaison, or is it someone higher up?


posted by Quiddity at 10/06/2010 04:48:00 PM